SSTO Challenges Of Weight and landing gear

[Spacescifi]

 

A true SSTO does not need rocket staging to reach space at all.

It either exhausts a tank to reach orbit with an amount of reserve propellant for landing, or it uses propellant to launch and then switches to nuclear blast propulsion pusher plate Orion style. With landing propellant to spare.

So I eventuallly came to the conclusion that the heavier the vessel at launch, the more heat and shockwaves the landing gear will be exposed to if they are out.

Just imagine, an SSTO has loaded up 100 tons of raw platinum from earthy planet Goldrush (just indulge the thought a bit), and now it prepares to launch into orbit again in spite of the 1g the planet is pulling them down with.

Now I am not saying landing gear cannot survive this, what I am saying is that I am not sure how many landings the landing legs or struts can take before they are irreversably damaged from rocket exhaust and atmospheric shockwave sonic blowback from the ground.

For that matter, can a ship get by WITHOUT landing struts?

Like suppose an orion pusher plate landed on it's plate while extending rockets to slow for landing?

What you think?

 

Could even retract the pistons inside the ship so that pusher plate is flush with the bottom of the ship, making it look like a bullet. That way rocket exhaust won't burn them.

Retracted shape:

 

 

Released shape:

Edited April 29, 2020 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

Bended pistons are great to push.

[Spacescifi]

On 4/29/2020 at 12:11 AM, kerbiloid said:

Bended pistons are great to push.

 

Bending is poor design unless that's just mocking.

Pistons can retract straight into the ship no problem at all.

Or to save space for payload they can even be put outside the ship and slide up so that is against the sides of the hull. 

Reusuable booster rockets for launch can be insided the ship and used for partway launch before pulse detonation of Orion.

[kerbiloid]

55 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

Bending is poor design unless that's just mocking.

It's not mocking. It's what will happen to pistons if use them as landing legs.

[Spacescifi]

27 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

It's not mocking. It's what will happen to pistons if use them as landing legs.

I see... well thanks for being polite. You strike me as someone who won't became adversarial easily, but nonetheless enjoys debating, which as I have read is very much part of the culture from the homeland. Being witty and mockery is too... RT mainly does it to US and the rest of the EU.

Back to the discussion, I never intended them as landing legs.

They will not touch the ground when pulled back.

The pusher plate is the landing leg.

Practical?

I dunno. But I think it can work given a level ground plus how heavy the plate is.

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

The touchdown will be unsymmetrical (unlike the proper propulsion kick) due to non-flat ground and tilted ship. So the pistons will be likely bended, no matter if they touch the ground.

In the native project the pusher plate was used to land the Orion used as a Martian ground base, never flying again.

[Shpaget]

On 4/29/2020 at 4:38 AM, Spacescifi said:

A true SSTO does not need rocket staging...

A SSTO that needs staging is not any kind of SSTO, by definition of the "SS" part.

What I don't understand is, why are you so stuck with pusher plates? Seriously, how many topics about pusher plates have you started? If it's for science fiction, there are more plot friendly solutions. If it's for actual real world dreams, then nuking your way to and from orbit is not going to be looked at nicely by all the irradiated bystanders.

[Spacescifi]

9 minutes ago, Shpaget said:

A SSTO that needs staging is not any kind of SSTO, by definition of the "SS" part.

What I don't understand is, why are you so stuck with pusher plates? Seriously, how many topics about pusher plates have you started? If it's for science fiction, there are more plot friendly solutions. If it's for actual real world dreams, then nuking your way to and from orbit is not going to be looked at nicely by all the irradiated bystanders.

 

Both.

Scifi angle: Not the most plot friendly way to get to space, but it is arguably also the only realistic design I will use besides the fictional ones, which are more numerous and common. Orions are viewed as dinosaurs, living museums of an old age by higher civs 

Realistic angle: Shows how practical the idea truly is. If it is both practical and can work IRL, reasons for not using it in scifi go down dramatically.